Summary
- Batik Air has launched a new route from Kuala Lumpur to Perth to Auckland, providing Kiwis with another nonstop flight option to Perth.
- The Perth-Auckland route caters to demand from the 85,000 New Zealanders living in Western Australia.
- Batik Air's connection through Perth also offers convenient options for Auckland travelers heading to Kuala Lumpur or Bali.
On the face of it, flying a route from Kuala Lumpur to Perth to Auckland seems a long round, but today Malaysian-based carrier Batik Air launched just that service. It is an interesting route that is more about the city pairs than what a direct flight from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur would deliver.
It's not quite a milk run
Batik Air has launched a new route between Kuala Lumpur-Perth-Auckland operated under flight OD195 and returning as OD196. The service will operate six times weekly, giving Kiwis another option for nonstop flights to Perth, currently only flown by Air New Zealand via a wet lease with Wamos Air, and onwards to Kuala Lumpur. From October 29th, Air New Zealand will use its aircraft and crews daily between Auckland and Perth.
On Thursday, Batik Air flight OD195 departed Kuala Lumpur International (KUL) at 11:05 and flew for 5:15 hours to land at Perth Airport (PER) at 16:20. The Boeing 737 MAX 8, registration 9M-LRJ and MSN 43018, then departed PER at 18:38 to arrive at Auckland International (AKL) at 04:40 today. The 737 departed AKL at 07:35 to arrive at PER at 11:04 and then continued to KUL.
One of the attractions of the Perth-Auckland service is that around 85,000 New Zealanders live in Western Australia, which drives a healthy demand for visiting friends and family in both directions. Auckland Airport Chief Customer Officer Scott Tasker said the new connection through to Perth reflected growing demand for the Western Australian destination.
"Pre-pandemic around 143,000 people travelled between Auckland and Perth. We've seen a really strong recovery in those numbers, which are back to around 96% of 2019 numbers, higher than the 77% for the overall international recovery.
"Or if you're keen to travel beyond Perth, then either carry on to Kuala Lumpur and connect with Batik's impressive Southeast Asia [network] or take a connecting Batik flight from Perth to Bail."
Just as it is for Australians, Bali is a very popular holiday destination for Kiwis and between 2015 and 2019 traveler numbers between Auckland and Bali grew by 239%, peaking at close to 140,000 pre-pandemic. The Batik Air connection provides a third option through to Kula Lumpur from Auckland, with Malaysia Airlines flying direct eight times per week and AirAsia X seven times per week via Sydney.
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A comfortable cabin with Batik Air
According to Planespotters.net, Batik Air, rebranded from Malindo Air last year, has a fleet of 35 aircraft, including eight ATR72-600 turboprops. The jet fleet includes two Airbus A330-300s, 16 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and nine 737-800s.
Today's aircraft, 9M-LRJ, is configured in a two-class layout of 162 seats, with 12 in business class and 150 in economy. Only three of the MAX 8 aircraft have the business class section with the balance operated as all economy cabins with 180/189 seats. The two-class layout is also used on most of the 737-800s, which fits with Batik Air's branding as a full-service carrier.
For onward travelers from Kuala Lumpur, Batik Air offers eight domestic destinations in Malaysia and 31 international destinations across Asia, including seven cities in India and four in Japan.
Have you flown with Batik Air? Let us know about your experience in the comments.
Source: Planespotters.net